Archive for the 'Food' Category

Went to LA to celebrate March family birthdays. My nephew, Sebastian, was one of the celebrants, celebrating his FIRST birthday! Too cute! Got to hang out with my family (and some friends that I also consider family). Went to a couple of my favorite eateries, of course (Daikokuya, Jessie’s Mexican Food

When we got back, some cousins came for a visit. Despite having just received our new couch and ottoman, making the sofa uber lounge-comfy, we managed to keep them active the whole time they were here. The threat of rain pushed us to get out and go out and see the sight “before it rain(ed)”, but it never did rain and we managed to see a whole bunch of the San Francisco tourist highlights (Chinatown, Lombard/Crooked Street, Union Square, Painted Ladies, Golden Gate Park, Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman’s Wharf, Haight/Ashbury) along with a couple of our new favorites (Coffee in West Portal; 9th & Irving; BiRite Creamery). We even made it to Muir Woods and Sausalito one day and San Jose on another day!

Then, last week, I went to Crafty Crafty night at Counterpulse and crafted with a bunch of strangers for a couple of hours. VERY PRODUCTIVE and fun to meet new people. Beats crocheting in front of the TV for a while.

The following day, I went to Make SF and took my first Arduino lesson. We made a temperature clock (details on the MakeSF Wiki) and I got to play Rock, Scissors, Paper with a computerized glove.

I WAS going to round out the week by going to Forage SF‘s Underground Farmer’s Market, but when driving up to the place, the line pouring out of the building and nearly wrapping around the closest corner was enough to convince me to keep moving and just wait for the next one… I’ll be there earlier next time.

Somewhere between all of this I also found a drop spindle at the thrift store and made my first yarn (still debating taking a picture or using it for stuffing); I’ve been making some hair accessories (soon to appear on Esty, I hope), I made my first (and second) Shepherd’s Pie; and made it through an iPhone Hello World tutorial. My food log has been slack since the last LA trip and I have been unmotivated (I’d say too busy, but I would be lying) for anything more than Sun Salutations. I am grateful, overwhelmed and excited.

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We had a late lunch today and we started chowing almost as soon as I pulled this out of the oven, so I don’t have a picture of the whole thing out of the oven… I also realized that the soup was a little watery (or maybe it was just because it was right out of the oven), so it’s a bit sloppy 🙂

I use this recipe (http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_pie_crust/) to make my pie crust (I substitute half of the butter with crisco), but you can also use pre-packaged crust. If you are making your own, roll out your crust before you start cooking and put it back in the fridge to keep it cool while you make your filling.

Filling

Sautee in the following order, seasoning with salt & pepper as you add each ingredient (adjust quantities to your preference):

3c chicken, cubed

(I like to use the pre-cooked frozen chicken breast, then I cut it up after heating)

2 large potatoes

family-sized bag of mixed vegetables

(add when the potatoes are mostly cooked)

This is what it looks like mixed:

When ready, add

Family Sized can of Cream of Chicken Soup

and any other ingredients the can of soup calls for to make the soup (this one asked for 1 equivalent can of water)

Mix and let it simmer (now’s a good time to pull your crust back out of the fridge)

Find a casserole your filling will fit into and pour the hot filling, then top it with the crust

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This Saturday, I had the pleasure of hosting a bunch of awesome crafters for the first ever Saturday Crafternoon. This craft event was made possible by Adam and Kelly, some folks I had known about 5 minutes from a brief interaction at Barcamp; my OG craft buddy, Crystal with her daughter, Pape; Kat (who I met once at Crystal’s last birthday party), her son, Colin; a friend I hadn’t seen since high school, Ferrie with her daughter, Hailey; Ferrie’s friend and fellow crafter, Tina (who I also went to high school with, but we looked at each other with the same, should-I-be-embarrassed-not-to-know-you-? followed by but-that-was-a-long-time-ago face); and my mommy. Chain-mail making, Jewelry beading, scrapbooking, sewing, fabric cutting, knitting and organizing – oh, and ice cream! – left me mushy with an overstimulated brain. And while we all definitely earned our craft badges, I’d also like to hand out some adventure badges:

Ferrie and I attended the same Junior High and High School and I really hadn’t seen her since then. So, it was a wonderful surprise to me that when she found me on Facebook a couple of days before the craft party, we quickly discovered that we both liked to craft. After a few email exchanges, I had invited her for the crafternoon and she’d accepted, noting that she’d be bringing another friend who likes to sew and, by the way, did I want any of the left over fabric they discard at work? (Of course, I said of course!) Even better than her showing up, she decided that she wanted to learn how to sew and managed to make and stuff a couple of pillows during the crafternoon (that’s her in the pic with one of her pillows). Congratulations, Ferrie!

Similarly, I’d briefly met Adam and Kelly at Barcamp two weeks before. We probably exchanged no more than 5 sentences with each other, tweeted a few more and without hesitation they RSVP’d, were the first ones to arrive and were one of the last to leave. *** Extra props to Adam for being our token fella for the day. ***

Despite my habit of taking as few pictures as possible during my most memorable moments (probably because I am simply busy enjoying myself), I hear Kat took some (which I KNOW she is going to post – right, Kat?) so we might actually get to see our works in the making!

THANKS for the vibe and inspiration, crafternooners! AGAIN! AGAIN! AGAIN!

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Slacking on the posting… Here’s what the dog’s been doing to my homework:
(18) Organized kitchen cupboard to make room for 8 bottles of Imahan Goma Dare.
I’m a bit shabu-shabu obsessed at the moment and building the perfect shabu night at home has been thwarted by finding a comparable goma sauce. When we finally figured it out, we went back to the store from where we first bought it, only to find out that the store had closed down and reopened as a new store that happens NOT to carry this particular brand.
We, then, drove to nearby stores and discovered that the market that previously occupied said store in previous paragraph was the only one carrying this particular brand of sauce because they used a different distributor and this was a special import (or something to that effect). But not to worry – we can find this store elsewhere on the west side of town…
So, off we went, West of Downtown LA (very lala land for us on a normal driving day, but we were committed to finding this sauce). We went to another 3 stores and finally found said store!!! (You’d think this saga was over,but this was only Sunday and I’m writing about Wednesday).
We walked over to the sauce aisle and rejoiced when we found the shelf label for the Imahan Goma Dare!!! Looking just a centimeter above that label, we found the back of the shelf with no bottles of sauce in between! PANIC! We asked the manager who told us to come back on Wednesday when their fresh new shipment of sauce would be waiting for us there.
Fast forward to Wednesday – we drove to yet another one of these said stores (okay, it was Mitsuwa) and purchased 8 bottles to ensure a sturdy supply in case of attack. I know the final day wasn’t much (buying and stocking the shelf), but it was a DAY 18, several days in the making.(19) Shabu with friends (of course we had shabu-shabu). I only really prepped the veggies, but I did make dessert. This is strawberry parfait: layers of Vanilla Yogurt, Crushed graham crackers, whipped cream and fresh chopped strawberries, layered in quantities catered to each guest’s choice. (Note: I tried a new yogurt because it was on sale and found that, athough still good, it was not as tart/tangy as the Mountain High brand that I usually use and didn’t offer the same kind of contrast to the rest of the flavors).(20) SLACKER! I took a nap that ended up being a fall-asleep-on-the-couch-and-somehow-find-myself-on-the-bed-at-3-in-the-morning-with-all-of-my-clothes-still-on kinda nap, so I really did in on
(21) 2 things for my cousin’s baby shower. A nursing pillow and a Ox-themed card for the Year of the Ox.

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When my daughter and siblings were younger, we all used to get together (myself, McKay, Kariel, My Mom, Dad, Matt, Mike Otto, and Paris) for dinner, play games or watch a movie afterward. Everyone’s beyond their teens now, but McKay and I still hang with the parents most Friday nights and now that my grandma is here, she joins us, too. Occasionally one of the other youngers join us.
Last night we had Costco lasagna, store-mixed Luleh Kabob, Rice and Salad – I made Dressings for the salad (incidentally – we also tried using our DirecTV Movies on Demand feature and it took SOOOO LONG to download – when we finished watching an hour-long show, it was still at 30%!).
It’s pretty much the same recipe just using different kinds of vinegar and the quantities are VERY FLEX – I don’t measure it exactly and sometimes add or subtract, depending on how I feel that day… I just kinda keep tasting as I go and decide how much of what flavor I want in it while I’m making it.

Creamy Italian [substitute ingredient for Balsamic]:
Ingredients:

2-3 tbsp Italian Seasoning

1.5-2c White Vinegar [balsamic vinegar]

1-2tbsp honey (or sugar)

4ish tbsp mayonnaise

Directions:

Use a Whisk or Fork to mix all the ingredients together.

Chill (optional, but it’s actually a little better after it’s had time to blend its flavors some)

Serve

14 – WINDSHIELD WIPERS, so far
Went to work early this morning and cleaned up my desk. Stopped in at the auto parts store to get new windshield wipers. Installed them (that was a lot more trying than I thought it would be).
Currently working on some pannier & pannier frame designs for my bike. Will post any view-worthy (is THAT presumptuous?) diagrams.

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what a month! let’s see (i actually made a list of things to blog about and still haven’t gotten around to it… let me try to summarize:

successful 18th birthday party planning, through a nasty sinus/lung infection

made a neck warmer that had so many iterations and ended up being pretty plain in the end

came up with my own mac and cheese recipe:

made a sock monkey:

made a cape

made a pincushion

got our meat slicer (ya, shabu!)

watched a lot of craft shows and cleaned up the dvr to only record the ones i liked (sorry, sue hausmann – i will pick you up again when i am more advanced and can follow you – i am just currently overwhlemed by your amazing skill level)

sewing machine died (and oogling a bunch of new ones while i borrow my mom’s spare – what a horrible time to break down – just as i am actually starting to use it)